COUNTERFEIT COINS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 128, 12 March 1935, Page 3

COUNTERFEIT COINS.

DISCOVERY NEAR SYDNEY. EXCELLENT IMITATIONS. Detectives in Sydney express the belief that a gang of counterfeiters is operating on an extensive scale in that city. More than 50 spurious florins recently came into the possession of the police, and each was so perfectly moulded that only experienced men could defect the difference between the counterfeit and the genuine coins. A council employee was cutting the grass on a footpath at Strathiield, seven miles from Sydney, when the point of his scythe unearthed a handkerchief containing the coins, which had been tied up in neat bundles. He reported his discovery to the police, and an examination revealed that thej were spurious. When detectives inspected the place where the coins had been found, they came to the conclusion that the bundle had been placed there on the previous night and in such a position tiia, it could he easily discovered by a person familiar with the locality. At first it was believed that the coins mioht have been thrown from a passing train, but had that been so the bundle would undoubtedly have hurst. Jhe police said they were convinced tlmt it had been hidden there in a position previously agreed upon by the counterfeiters. . . ~ The grass was long and .rank beiore the gardeners began work upon it, and had been so for some time. It is believed that it was regularly used as a hiding-place for it is in an isolated locality and convenient only to the railway station.